Inmate Wants U.s., State To Review Case

March 8, 2002|By Paula McMahon and Ardy Friedberg Staff Writers

Defense attorneys for a man who says he was wrongly convicted of the 1990 murder of Broward Sheriff's Deputy Patrick Behan said Thursday they will ask the U.S. Department of Justice and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to re-examine the entire case.

The request followed Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne's decision that his agency's 10-month re-investigation of Behan's murder did not yield enough evidence to charge another man, Andrew Johnson, who told undercover officers that he killed a deputy.

Attorneys for Tim Brown, who is serving a life sentence for Behan's murder, said the Sheriff's Office review is flawed.

"The question is -- is there a willingness on the part of BSO to acknowledge that they got the wrong man?" said Tim Day, Brown's federal public defender.

Day said it seemed to him that detectives have more evidence of Johnson's alleged involvement in Behan's murder than they have ever had of Brown's guilt. Brown was 15 at the time of the murder and had a reported IQ of 56. He has said detectives beat him and forced him to confess. Richard Leo, a defense expert on false confessions, called Brown's admission "very likely unreliable."

Jenne pointed out Thursday that he already has turned over five boxes of his agency's files to Broward prosecutors, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Those agencies will make the final decision on whether to charge Johnson.

Today in federal court in Miami, Day will ask a judge to force state prosecutors to turn over the new information so Brown's defense team can evaluate whether it could help to free him.

When Jenne laid out the details of the investigation to the Sun-Sentinel on Wednesday, he said his agency's investigation did not find any new evidence that would exonerate Brown or co-defendant Keith King.

Brown and King were convicted of fatally shooting Behan, 29, in the head on Nov. 13, 1990, in the parking lot of a Circle K convenience store in Pembroke Park. Brown, 26, is serving life in prison for first-degree murder. King, 28, was released in 1999 after serving nine years for manslaughter and unrelated charges.

Jenne said the investigation of Johnson stalled prematurely on Feb. 8 after the 10-month inquiry was leaked to the media.

He said the $250,000 investigation consumed more than 6,000 hours and involved elaborate scenarios to try to get Johnson to reveal information that would implicate him in Behan's murder.

Jenne acknowledged Thursday that Johnson was not able to provide a verifiable alibi for the night Behan was killed. "Remember it was 1990, a long time ago," Jenne said.

During the undercover investigation, Johnson never mentioned Behan, but on more than one occasion he said he had killed Deputy Brian Montgomery. Montgomery still works for the Sheriff's Office.

Johnson, 32, of Miramar, was a detention deputy with the Sheriff's Office for 11 months before he was fired in 1990 for violating several agency policies and after several run-ins with Montgomery.

When Johnson was told that it was Behan, not Montgomery, who had been killed at a convenience store, Johnson "was very, very surprised. You could see the surprise on his face," Jenne said.

While Brown's attorneys were unhappy with the investigation's outcome, Johnson and his attorney were satisfied.

Gibson described as "bizarrely stupid" the suggestion that Johnson had killed Behan, pointing out that Jenne said Johnson only bragged that he killed Montgomery.

"We have all along said that [Johnson] killed no one, he admitted to killing no one who is dead," Gibson said. "If a person is alive, there is no murder."

"Bad judgment is not a crime. I don't believe there is any question that Mr. Johnson was on tape. That was not good judgment."

Johnson is not bitter but thinks his life has been destroyed by the publicity surrounding the investigation, Gibson said.

"He's got a lifelong paper trail with respect to news accounts that name him as a murderer."

Gibson said Johnson is waiting for the other agencies to complete their reviews of the sheriff's files and hopes they will clear him.

"After 6,000 hours of investigation, if there was something to it, it would be apparent by now," Gibson said.

Coral Springs police Sgt. Bob Behan, the slain deputy's brother, said he was not surprised by the outcome of the re-investigation.

"I've said before that a liar is a liar is a liar, and it looks like [the Sheriff's Office] found a pathological liar. They had an obligation to justice, and they fulfilled it," Behan said. "It shows the sheriff is a man of integrity."

The U.S. Attorney's Office would not comment. FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said agents would review the Sheriff's Office material.